Real Minutes of VAPO Meeting on March 4th,
2000
- Meeting was called to order by el PRESIDENTE, Jerome ve7ass,
ve7poo, ve7spy, va7vv at 10:00am sharp...
- There were about 25 members at the meeting.
- There was discussion about the gazette and the feeling was
that it is a valuable tool to keep everyone informed, although there was very little
feedback from the members on the pro's and con's of the publication. Only one official
response received and that was from Keith, ve7kwk.
- Discussion transpired on the cost of dues for folks who
could not honestly afford the $25/year. Jerome suggested that if this was the case a
simple phone call would alleviate the problem and everyone agreed.
- The subject of the amount of dues came up and after
considerable discussion it was voted to have next years dues reduced to $15/annum rather
than the present $25/annum. This will take effect on January 1, 2001. One of the reasons
for reducing is to try and accommodate new members with the reduction in fees. Another
reason is the fact that we have not been spending a lot of money for system expansion and
maintenance in the past and we have a fairly decent slush fund at the present time. If we
find that there will be some big expenditures for maintenance, then we will have to
increase the fees again.
- Jerome brought up the subject of whether VAPO requires all
of the existing BBS sites which are currently in operation as the user population on some
of them is fairly low. Walter, ve7bgj brought up the fact that in Burnaby there is the
problem of not good contact with some BBS's if we start cutting back and the possibility
of too many users on a limited number of BBS's. The decision was made to leave the status
quo for the time being.
- Lane, ve7ihl is presently working a system for 'keyboarding'
throughout the system such that the system is invisible to having many BBS's. This would
simulate having one site which would cover the entire area such that 'keyboarding' could
take place again throughout the coverage area of the VAPO packet system.
- Discussion came up about what was being done to promote new
users into the packet community and the consensus was that very little was being done. The
bottom line in the future is that if something is not done, then the VAPO packet group is
prone to failure. No one wants that, so it was brought up that if anyone has any ideas,
please contact the executive and pass the thoughts along.
- Walter, ve7bgj brought up the fact that he would like to see
the system operate with a whole bunch of 'dumb' terminals to make the system very simple
to operate. The consensus was that this was a good idea except that some members would
like to get back to the 'lets look ahead' rather than looking back philosophy.
- Jerome was suggesting that we should look into getting a
number of portable packet stations available such that we could be a very active
contingent in the emergency program in the LMD. Tom, ve7did will look into trying to
obtain some old(er) laptop computers and some radios such that these packages can be
provided.
- All of the BBS's are in good condition with no exceptional
outage reports from the sysops. VE7KIT is having a few Linux file problems which Lane will
fix in the near future.
- Donuts and some extremely strong coffee were consumed at the
meeting during the break.
- A presentation was provided by Kevin McQuiggin, ve7zd to the
populous on the state of the 56k packet in the LMD. This presentation was very interesting
and discussion was held on how it may be possible to interface the high speed packet
system into the VAPO system to provide some more flexibility for the users. If further
info is required, please contact the executive and we will endeavour to put you in contact
with Kevin. Lee, ve7cc mentioned that we presently do have a link between the systems,
however it is an internet connection and in the possible event of an emergency this link
may be very questionable as to its reliability.
- Lane, ve7ihl gave a presentation on using a 486 laptop with
Linux used as the operating system, then running a DOS emulator program to run some packet
programs. This basically demonstrated the great flexibility of Linux and how to operate
some DOS programs. Again very interesting and if anyone is interested, I'm sure Lane will
be glad to give some basic guidance on the subject.
- Tom, ve7did gave the financial report and indicated that we
have $2,900 in the kitty and provided an encapsulation of the items we purchased since the
last VAPO meeting. The current membership is at the 86 level with quite a few individuals
who have not renewed their memberships.
- Fred, ve7ee in his usual vapoizer fashion, motioned that the
meeting was finished and of course everyone agreed....
- Meeting was terminated at 12 noon.
That's all folks.... Tom, ve7did